Latest news with #Gillis
Hamilton Spectator
10 hours ago
- General
- Hamilton Spectator
Tree planting teaches P.E.I. students about nature
SLEMON PARK, P.E.I. – A ninth-grade Summerside Intermediate School science club got to spend a recent school day outside instead of in the classroom. The class spent their morning and early afternoon planting trees at a field in Slemon Park, P.E.I., on May 30. Hosted by the Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association, students and volunteers planted approximately 192 trees during the Tree Canada event. Dave Allan, environmental projects co-ordinator for the management association, says activities like these are good for getting students out and aware of the environment around them. As the association starts its tree-planting initiative, its goal is to plant at least 3,500 by the end of the calendar year. 'We're probably a little more than halfway there,' Allan said. Allan has advice for people who want to plant a tree. It starts with making a ring around the area where the tree is to be planted with a shovel. 'Dig the hole about twice the size of the planting and make sure that it's going to be flush with the ground, the top of the soil,' he said. After the tree is in the hole, reuse the soil dug up and firmly use the dirt to patch around the edges, Allan added. 'But before putting the tree in the hole, break up the roots to try and help them spread out once they start to grow,' he said. In an interview with The Guardian on May 30, Lana Gillis, the management association's technician, says these trees will play a vital role for the wildlife. 'A lot of habitats within the trees, around the trees and it just brings the whole ecosystem together,' she said. It's also positive to see the youth partake in activities surrounding nature, Gillis added. 'It's really exciting, and I'm really happy that I'm here today to help them out with that,' she said. Depending on weather conditions, the trees that were planted at Slemon Park will take approximately one year to begin their maturing phase while they expand their ring year after year. 'It'll take a while for them to grow fully, but it'll be exciting to see,' Gillis said. Yutaro Sasaki is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter, a position funded by the federal government. He can be reached at ysasaki@ . Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Steve Gerben Talks ‘Tires' Impact on Dad's Shop, John McKeever Explains That Whole 'McKeever' Thing
Tires season two rolled out on Netflix today, Thursday, June 5. Riding shotgun in the Shane Gillis-vehicle are his friends and creative partners for a decade, co-star/writer Steve Gerben and writer/director John McKeever. (For the sake of the analogy, picture a 1970s Chevy Bel Air front bench seat.) Well, really, it is McKeever (who professionally goes by just 'McKeever') steering the car with Gerben navigating — or vice versa. The 6'3' Gillis is stretched out in the backseat — that's where the celebrity goes — but he's not merely along for the ride. We'll stop forcing the metaphor immediately. More from The Hollywood Reporter Netflix EMEA Content Boss Touts 'Adolescence,' Debunks a "Myth," Talks Ted Sarandos' Acting Debut 'Lost in Starlight' Director Han Ji-won on Blending Romance and Sci-Fi for Netflix's Breakthrough Korean Animated Feature Joe Manganiello, Who Starred in 'Pee-wee's Big Holiday,' Chokes Up Remembering Late Friend Paul Reubens: "I Was His Biggest Fan" Gillis is a co-creator of the series and number one on its call sheet. He's also the guy who paid out of pocket to build the Tires set. Tires was originally shot as a 10-minute pilot for YouTube and sold as a series to Quibi. Unfortunately, Quibi lasted about as long as Gillis did at SNL. (OK, so Quibi made it six months; Gillis' Saturday Night Live stint lasted five whole days, though he's since hosted twice.) Early on in the conception phase, the guys chose a body shop setting for the most pragmatic reason possible: because Steve's dad owns one. Gillis, a successful standup comic and the co-host of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast, put an addition onto the Gerben family business, a tire shop in Westchester, Pennsylvania. It's where they still film today. (It's also where they pull storylines: Gerben's dad had some trouble with his suppliers over a plan to sell their tires at his cost, which comes to a head in Tires season two.) So Netflix picked up Tires for the price of an oil change, basically. OK, now we're done. I liked the first season, but I loved the second. Would you agree that season two is even better than season one? JM: I think the nature of the first season was— I would almost argue it was a long cold open, and really, our whole goal with that first season was to nail down the tone and the style of the show. We really just honed in on one storyline, and mostly because we didn't have a ton of production, money, time, resources — stuff like that. So we really treated season two like a season one. Season one was famously inexpensive to make… JM: Outside of a found-footage documentary, I feel like this is about as cheap as it gets. SG: As cheap as season one was to make, we'd be remiss not to say that Shane did spend all his own money to make it. This time around, it's Netflix's money. At the time, did you guys view Shane's a bummer or a blessing? JM: When he was auditioning for SNL, I talked to him after he auditioned, and I said, 'You're gonna get it, because they don't have anyone like you.' [Shane's] an archetype that hasn't been around for a really long time. If I'm Lorne Michaels, I would see [Shane] and say, 'God, I can do so much with him' — outside of just the fact that he's mega-talented. I think of him as like Adam Sandler. And I've always thought of Steve as like Jason Bateman. These two guys are very, very good in their lanes. And if we can find a way to mash them together, that's incredible. But yeah, when, when Shane got SNL, I thought of it as like in Good Will Hunting, where Ben Affleck is like, 'I hope I knock on your door one day and you're not there.' It was that feeling where it's like, I don't want to see you go, but I'm happy you're moving on. And then when he got fired, we definitely were like, sweet, we get to do our stuff again. SG: One of the first things Shane did when he got SNL was ask Lorne Michaels if he could still do Tires, which is an insane thing to ask. OK, so what's up with the McKeever one name thing in the credits? JM: I'm so glad you asked that, because I feel like people give me shit about it. As they should. JM: Yeah. It's not the, it's not really the Madonna angle of, like, 'Ooh, mysterious.' It's more that's just what people call me. And because, you know, John is such a common name. My really close friends call me John, but most people refer to me as McKeever. And the other thing that I kind of realized when we started making Tires and when I started doing more behind-the-camera stuff and just writing, I just thought, you know, I have like, a three-second window in every episode for people to remember who I am. And I just feel like I should probably get rid of half of the stuff they have to remember. So if I can get them to get rid of 'John,' which is probably the most forgettable name out there…and I think a lot of times when people read 'John,' they almost don't even read the second part. My fear was like, it would be viewed as, like, 'Who the fuck does this guy think?' That's definitely how I viewed it. JM: I totally get it. But it was more like I have three seconds for people to remember who I am… Steve, you just did … SG: Shane wanted me to do Late Night and wouldn't do it without me. Hats off to Seth for taking that risk. But anyway, I was telling Shane, like, 'I'm very nervous.' And the way that this whole thing goes down, you know, it's very like, bing, bang, boom. You're in the green room, then hair and makeup, Seth's doing the monologue, they bring you out, 'They're like, stand here, Steve you're gonna sit there. Get together, take a picture.' And they go, '20 seconds.' And so then I'm just standing there…and I look at Shane and I go, 'I'm having some pretty bad fight-or-flight right now, man.' And he just looks back and he goes, 'fight.' I don't think I've ever heard something that cool, that badass. JM: It was so cool to see Steve be Steve, and now the world gets to see that. It is a true one-of-one. I think the nice thing about Tires is it's a true Trojan Horse. Shane gets everybody in the door, and Steve falls out. Shane plays 'Shane' and Kilah Fox plays 'Kilah' — most of the cast uses their real names — but Steve plays Will and Chris O'Connor plays Cal. When do you use real first names and when don't you? SG: Very early on I told Shane, 'Do a different name, like Sean or something.' He's like, 'Just call me Shane.' I don't know why we kept 'Kilah'… but Shane was just like — he didn't want to be bothered. JM: It was honestly a nightmare when we wrote the first season, because I would write some scripts, and I put 'Steve' because I couldn't get used to the 'Will' thing. Now it's very easy. SG: Shane does not like that I'm Will because he does not like that I'm acting. I wanted to act. I wanted, as small as it is, to separate from me the person. How's your dad's shop doing? Has the show been good for business? SG: No, he's not doing, like, better. He's not doing any worse. The [Tires shop and real shop] have different names, and— shops are just, they're tough to run. It's just really hard to hire right now, he's just, like, chronically understaffed. You would think, next to this set [it would get a boost], but it hasn't changed for much. But he's fine. Did you work at the shop? SG: I was trying to work for him, I would work the counter, and I was awful. And so, for the past 16 years, I've been working for my brother. But yeah, I just wasn't cut out for for [the shop] business, honestly. What does your brother do? SG: He is a trademark attorney. Are you a attorney? A paralegal? SG: Paralegal. (Laughs) But now, Tony, I'm an actor! The show, especially season two, covers a lot of topics that can be dicey to approach comedically. This season, Shane brings a gun to work — and that's just the first episode. Is it a purposeful choice to go hit on all of the subjects you're not supposed to joke about in polite company? SG: I'm going to take that one because John would be too modest to answer this. It's John. He knows how to walk that line, and he will also— sometimes it's very hard in the moment when everybody's pitching, like, funny ideas or whatever, to be the bad guy and be like, 'That's too far.' And yet he makes those decisions. And it is John. That is a very specific thing where it's like, he— Shane can walk a line too, we've all seen that. But insofar as the writing process, John is just so good at that. JM: Steve and I, we spend a lot of time on that. There's a few rules that we we follow and that we generally believe in. And one of them is like, 'Is this funny or is this mean?' If it feels mean, it's got to go. If it's to make a point, you know, if it's to make some lame political point — one way or the other — where you're trying to get people watching, not to laugh, but to go, 'Hmm, I agree with that.' Then that fucking sucks. We've spent a lot of time talking about, like, what we can and can't say. And I think we can say anything. I think anything's on the table, but it's that whole thing of, 'Are we making sure that the right person is the butt of the joke here?' And we are ingratiating our characters to the audience enough for them to grant us forgiveness. When we do those jokes, if you have a bunch of characters that are jerk offs and they're sitting around like, 'I can't stand trans people,' it's like well, your show's gonna suck. If you set it up the right way, I think you can do anything. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Spectator
5 days ago
- General
- Spectator
A searching question: Heartwood, by Amity Gaige, reviewed
The Appalachian Trail is America's secular version of the Camino de Santiago but more than twice as long. In Amity Gaige's Heartwood, Valerie Gillis is a 42-year-old nurse and experienced trail-walker who nonetheless vanishes one day in the northern stretch, in Maine, the wildest of the New England states. Heading the search for her is Beverly Miller, a senior game warden, who stands out among her colleagues because she is 6ft, female and not a native Mainer. As the days go by, and despite the impressive number of volunteers looking for Gillis, the chances of finding her alive diminish. Miller, a veteran of similar searches, has to continue to motivate her teams, even as her own appraisal of the situation grows gloomy. Miles to the south of the search, Lena Kucharski is a 76-year-old resident of a retirement community in Connecticut. A keen birdwatcher, she keeps her distance from her fellows, using her confinement in a wheelchair to dodge the unwanted attentions of a male suitor. She spends much of her day online, exchanging information and foraging reports with a young male naturalist who happens to have an intimate knowledge of the woods in the area where Gillis was last spotted. When this online friend starts spouting conspiracy theories about a Department of Defense training facility bordering the woods, Lena suppresses her initial scepticism and pursues a link to the missing woman that proves instrumental to the book's resolution. The three female narrators are each deftly drawn and the mechanics of the search operations are particularly absorbing. The sheer number of volunteers helping is extraordinary – but, as Miller remarks: 'Like the Amish raise their barns, Mainers search for each other in the woods.'
San Francisco Chronicle
22-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Popular S.F. Italian restaurants file for bankruptcy
A San Francisco favorite for wood-fired pizza has filed for bankruptcy at two of its four locations. Fiorella entered filings for its Richmond District and Sunset District locations, each operated by different limited liability corporations, for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The filing type allows owners to continue operating a business while restructuring debt. Co-owner Brandon Gillis emphasized that the two restaurants would not be closing. 'These are calculated decisions that were made based on keeping our great team and continuing to feed people,' Gillis said. Fiorella filed for bankruptcy for the Richmond District location, at 2339 Clement Ave., on Tuesday. Court documents show Project Pizza, LLC, which owns the location, owes just over $1 million to creditors including wine distributors, meat purveyors and the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. Documents show the company has $78,855 in assets. The operator of Fiorella's Sunset location at 1240 Ninth Ave., Project Pizza Sunset LLC, filed for bankruptcy on April 1; it held $499,481.74 in assets, according to the filing, while its total liabilities were between $500,000 and $1 million at the time of the filing. Fiorella operates another two San Francisco locations under separate LLCs: one in Russian Hill, 2238 Polk St., and its latest in Noe Valley, at 4042 24th St. The restaurants share similar menus, with pizza and pastas plus specials. Co-owners Boris Nemchenok and Gillis founded the first Fiorella in the Richmond a decade ago. Gillis is hopeful for the future of his restaurants. 'I'm a really strong believer in San Francisco and I feel like the city is starting to reach a place where we can rebound,' he said.
Miami Herald
21-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
‘Door-to-door' salesman scammed women and their older parents in OR, feds say
An Oregon man accused of scamming women he pursued romantically, and their older parents, can't escape responsibility for his debts, a federal bankruptcy court has ruled. While selling vacuums, air filters and other items, Jason Gillis, a door-to-door salesman, caused women and their parents to invest in his business ventures but then defrauded them by using their investments 'primarily for personal expenses,' the Justice Department said in a May 19 news release. He took advantage of one woman's 79-year-old mother, who had recently experienced a stroke, and secretly stole both of the women's identities, amassing debts in their names, according to the Justice Department. Gills also had the 79-year-old 'take out a mortgage on her home, purportedly under duress,' and he had her hand over more than $100,000, federal prosecutors said. The money went to Gillis' business bank account, but then it was mostly used by him for personal spending, according to federal officials. Gillis was facing a variety of lawsuits accusing him of fraud, breach of contract and theft by deception, as well as court judgments, when he filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in August 2024, according to the Justice Department. Now, the bankruptcy court for the District of Oregon has ruled in the favor of the U.S. Trustee Program by refusing to discharge more than $1.7 million in debts on the basis of bankruptcy, the Justice Department said. The Justice Department's U.S. Trustee Program supervises bankruptcy cases and seeks to hold people accused of fraud, like Gillis, accountable to prevent the court system from being abused. The program brought a complaint against Gillis in Portland federal court on Feb. 27, records show. Gillis is listed as representing himself. His contact information wasn't immediately available. Gillis 'did not respond to or defend against the USTP's complaint to deny his bankruptcy discharge, leading to a default judgment in the USTP's favor,' officials said in the release. The U.S. Trustee Program's Portland-based office began investigating Gillis and learned 'that to avoid collection efforts, Gillis concealed his interests in several businesses by transferring nominal ownership to victims while he retained full control and by forging signatures on forms filed with the Oregon Secretary of State,' the Justice Department said. In his bankruptcy case, he lied about his financial situation and how he defrauded multiple women and their family members, who've tried to collect the debts they are owed, according to the U.S. Trustee Program. While in a romantic relationship with one woman, he scammed her mother, who was in her 70s, out of a recreational vehicle worth about $150,000, officials said. He leased the RV from his then-girlfriend's mother and started living in it, according to the Justice Department. Ultimately, he stopped making lease payments and wouldn't reveal where the RV was located, officials said. 'Bankruptcy is not a safe haven for fraudsters,' Acting U.S. Trustee Jonas V. Anderson for Oregon and four other states said in a statement. 'The U.S. Trustee Program, as the watchdog of the bankruptcy system, is committed to rooting out deceptive schemes that harm innocent victims.' Anderson, appointed by former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, also oversees Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Washington as acting U.S. trustee for Region 18.
